Invermere’s Ben Thomsen exceeds his best expectations on World Cup alpine ski tour

Top 10 in four races — with a podium in one — makes for great year

Ben Thomsen of Canada competes during the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Men’s Downhill on March 14, 2012 in Schladming, Austria.

Photograph by: Alexis Boichard/Agence Zoom
, Getty Images

VANCOUVER — Young Ben Thomsen began the World Cup alpine ski season with some modest goals. When you’re racing downhills from start positions back in the 40s and 50s, that’s wise.

So back in October the 24-year-old from Invermere wrote that a top 15 result would be good. He also wanted to be in the top 25 in the point standings to make it into the World Cup Finals.

A Canadian Cowboy belt buckle with his name engraved on it — the prize for a top three World Cup, world championship or Olympic finish? Not even a thought.

“No way did I think I would be top 10 four races in a row and to have a podium in there,” Thomsen said Wednesday from Schladming, Austria. “When you don’t expect something, that’s kind of when it happens.”

Thomsen, who was presented his belt buckle by coach Paul Kristofic on Tuesday, was 10th in the World Cup Finals downhill on a warm day in Schladming. And when Norway’s Kjetl Jansrud crashed with a good run going, it allowed Thomsen to finish the season in 15th overall, a significant achievement given that it puts him into the bib draw for early races next season. The draw determines favourable start positions eight through 15 on race day.

“There’s pressure to perform when you’re in that elite group, but I like having that pressure. I embrace it. I’ve shown I can perform under pressure and I hope that keeps pushing me in the right direction.”

Thomsen was just 34th, 40th, 32nd, 37th and 41st in his first five downhills this season and the 5-7, 180-pounder looked a bit overmatched.

But he was an encouraging 23rd in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on Jan. 28, and then really got things going the following weekend in Chamonix, France, finishing 11th and fifth in races on back-to-back days. The next weekend, he scored a stunning podium breakthrough on the 2014 Olympic course at Sochi with a second-place finish, and followed that up with a ninth at Kvitfjell, Norway, on March 4.

As an undersized, late bloomer who had to finance his own way to Europe a couple of seasons ago, Thomsen constantly battled doubters all along the way.

“If there’s one thing I learned this season ... it’s that try trumps logic,” he said. “Nothing matters until race day when all bets are off. It doesn’t matter what you did in training, what your start position is, what skis you’re on, what the weather is. It’s whatever you do on the race-day run that counts.”

Thomsen said he was frustrated with his run on Wednesday, “I skied well at the top, but at the bottom I kind of laid off the gas a bit, skied conservative, which really isn’t my style. I caught an edge on some soft snow and that pulled me wide and that was it. I probably lost 8/10ths of a second on the last interval.”

Thomsen’s time of one minute, 48.16 seconds was 1.35 seconds back of winner Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway.

Jan Hudec of Calgary was the top Canadian, finishing eighth in 1:48.05, despite getting something in his eye part way down the course. Erik Guay of Mont Tremblant, Que., was 13th.

Hudec, who won at Chamonix and finished the season ninth overall, was delighted to complete the season healthy after having so many campaigns shortened by knee injuries and back problems. “If you had told me at the beginning of the season that I would finish in the points, well, I’m pretty stoked with that.”

Austria’s Klaus Kroell, who was seventh Wednesday, captured the downhill Crystal Globe with 605 points, seven ahead of Beat Feuz of Switzerland, who was second in the race.

Hudec and Guay race the super-G today.

VONN WINS: American Lindsey Vonn, who had already clinched the women’s downhill crown, won by nearly half a second for her 12th victory and her 17th top three of the season. No Canadian women raced downhill.

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